Hey everyone,

Yesterday I purchased a set of cobblestone impression mats for an underwater cake I need to do in a week. I was going to do deep brown fondant but I wanted to add some depth to the "rocks" if that makes sense. Like make it darker in between the stones. I attached a picture which shows kind of what I'm talking about:

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1702591

The only problem is, I don't own an airbrush. Is there anything else I can do to achieve this effect?

One idea I had was to purchase the black spray color from Wilton, spray my fondant pieces heavily (hoping that the black seeps into the cracks) and then lightly wipe the surface with a paper towel to expose the raised surface of the rocks, but leaving black . I have to experiment this weekend. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks for all your help!

I would paint the mat with the color and wipe off the mat, leaving the dye in the crevasses... you can control it better...try it and see!

Ok thanks. I think that is what I am going to do. Hopefully Michael's has the black spray!

Thanks again!

I am so lazy I would probably just take the black coloring for icing and dip it out into a bowl and paint it on ...never would have thought to get the spray paint, as it may dry too quickly... have fun!

Oh! and I would mix vodka with the black gel (like when you are painting fondant)...that makes it go further and thins it out....so it will dry faster!

What about painting the piece after?

Personally I would color the fondant/gumpaste light gray, then use a black powder color to highlight areas. What makes that cake really effective is that it isn't just in the crevasses, really not a lot in them, but more over the top edges of the rocks.

If you don't have black powder color, then I'd use airbrush color or gel color mixed with alcohol, and after it is dry dust it with some powder sugar to get rid of any shine.

If you have black powder you can try dusting the mold with that. I'd be concerned, personally, with putting any thing wet in it because that could cause your fondant/gumpaste to stick.

Ok, I'll try to find some powder color this week. Thanks again for all your suggestions!

Thanks for posting that-I will have to watch it when I go home this evening.

Thanks again!